Soil properties and forest productivity can be affected during ground-based harvest operations and site preparation. The degree of impact varies widely depending on topographic features and soil properties. Forest managers who understand site-specific limits to ground-based harvesting can alter harvest method or season to limit soil disturbance. To determine the...

Rangeland landscapes occupy roughly 662 million acres in the coterminous U.S. (Reeves and Mitchell 2011) and their vegetation responds quickly to climate and management, with high relative growth rates and inter-annual variability. Current national decision support systems in the U.S. such as the Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (IFT-DSS) require...

Part B The pearly-eyed thrasher is a major nest predator and competitor for nest sites of the endangered Puerto Rican Parrot. In all aspects of its distribution and ecology, Margarops fuscatus is a classic example of an avian ?supertramp.? It is a pugnacious, highly vagile species, i.e., a good disperser, with a propensity to fill vacant or underexploited niches at all...

Estimated changes in carbon stocks are reported for the forests and wood products of the 50 U.S. States. Carbon stocks on forest land and in harvested wood products increased between 1987 and 1997 at an annual rate of 190 million metric tons. Most of this increase was in biomass, followed closely by wood products and landfills. Changes in land use since 1987 caused a...

Volcanic eruptions are an important and natural source of catastrophic disturbance to ecological communities. However, opportunities to study them are relatively rare. Here we report on the effects of the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano on the forest bird community of the Lesser Antillean island of Montserrat. The island?s species-poor avifauna includes 11...

The Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) located on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico has a rich history of ecological research, including a variety of avian studies, and is one of the most active ecological research sites in the Neotropics. The LEF spans an elevational range from 100 to 1075mover which five life zones and four forest types are found in a warm, humid...

Photographic key to determine age in two Thryothorus wrens from Nicaragua's Pacific slope. ? We used plumage and molt characteristics to determine age in two Neotropical species of the family Troglodytidae, Rufous-and-White Wren (Thryothorus rufalbus) and Plain Wren (T. modestus). Color density, shape, and strength of the black barring in the remiges, rectrices,...

Over the past 17 years, research on a rain forest population of the Pearly-eyed Thrasher (Margarops fuscatus), with additional observations on nesting Puerto Rican Parrots (Amazona vittata) within the Sierra de Luquillo, Puerto Rico, has shown that reproductive success of thrashers and parrots is often greatly reduced as a result of the additive effects of a diverse...

A longer growing season with climate change is expected to increase net primary productivity of many rangeland types, especially those dominated by grasses, although responses will depend on local climate and soil conditions. Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide may increase water use efficiency and productivity of some species. In many cases, increasing wildfire...

We summarized existing knowledge (circa 1996) of the potential historical range and the current distribution and status of non-anadromous interior redband trout Oncorhynchus mykiss ssp. in the U.S. portion of the interior Columbia River Basin and portions of the Klamath River and Great Basins (ICRB). We estimated that the potential historical range included 5,458...

Understory vegetation structure and its relationship with forest canopies and site conditions are important determinants of carbon stocks, wildlife habitat, and fuel loading for wildland fire assessments. Comprehensive studies are needed to assess these relationships through the use of consistently collected field-based data. One approach to achieve this is to make use...